Power Rangers - Seasons 1-7: From Mighty Morphin to Lost Galaxy DVDReview

How can a TV show simultaneously be bad and be awesome? I submit to you, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.

With the 20th anniversary of Power Rangers approaching next year, Shout! Factory have given Power Rangers fans the collection they’ve been waiting for. Currently exclusively available via Time Life, the recently released Power Rangers - Seasons 1-7: From Mighty Morphin to Lost Galaxy collection offers what the title promises – every single episode from the show’s first seven seasons, along with a bevy of special features.

This collection actually consists of two different box sets, in their own separate packaging, which will no doubt eventually be released separately down the line: Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Complete Series and Power Rangers: Seasons 4-7 (The MMPR one has already been sold on its own at San Diego Comic Con and Power Morphicon this summer). All together, these seven seasons give you 338 episodes of teenagers fighting monsters, aliens and alien monsters!

Power Rangers has held onto many of its fans, the majority of whom were young children when it first aired – and for whom the show made a major impact. It’s easy to see the appeal, as the show offered up a young team of likable superheroes in bright and cool looking costumes, some truly fantastical villains (whose weirdness was amped up via the show’s Japanese origins) and broad, slapstick comedy.

The thing is, viewed as an adult, Power Rangers is not a very good television show. The writing is incredibly simplistic and earnest, the acting (with a couple of notable exceptions) weak and the storylines ridiculous - and wow can it be repetitive, down to the exact same beats in the majority of the fights. But that was all okay, because it delivered Stuff Kids Love and it obviously has huge nostalgia appeal to those who grew up with it, while it’s also continually gaining new young fans along the way.

When it comes to video quality, we’re grading on a curve here and by Power Rangers standards, this DVD delivers. These was a low budget series, incorporating low budget (and not so well-preserved in the first place) footage from Japan. The image on these new DVDs looks brighter and notably less fuzzy than any earlier Power Rangers releases or airings. It’s still far from reference quality and can vary dramatically from scene to scene and episode to episode, with some notable distortion in certain episodes, but this is probably the best you can expect this show to look at this point, given the source material. The sound quality is decent, with all of the various music, sound FX elements (and man, does this show have a lot of those) and dialogue sounding distinct and clear.

Shout! Factory is the perfect company to produce long-awaited full series sets for Power Rangers, as they are very in tune with cult fanbases and what they’d like to see on sets such as these. The two box sets both look great, with very attractive packaging and individual seasons inside (or, in the very earliest cases, when Mighty Morphin had very long seasons, “Volumes”) and are both accompanied by a booklet containing episode listings, character bios and a ton of photos.

There are several newly-produced special features created for these sets, and while it’s a shame a few key cast members like Austin St. John (“Jason”), Amy Jo Johnson (“Kimberly”) and Johnny Yong Bosch (“Adam”) are not present, new interviews with the likes of David Yost (“Billy”), Jason David Frank (“Tommy”), Walter Jones (“Zack”), Steve Cardenas (“Rocky”), Karen Ashley (“Aisha”) and Catherine Sutherland (“Kat”), not to mention several key members of the crew, provide plenty of insight into the creation of this pop culture phenomenon.

The cast and creators have a lot to say about the early days of the show, including discussing the unbelievable schedule it took to crank out that many episodes of the show -- they were sometimes shooting as many as four episodes a week -- and how unprepared anyone was for how Power Rangers would explode in popularity. A story about the tens of thousands of fans that showed up for what was supposed to be a small event at Universal Studios is particularly memorable. All of the original cast members are focused on, whether they are interviewed or not, including some very touching memories about the late Thuy Trang (“Trini”) shared by her costars. Other featurettes focus on specifics like the stunt work on Power Rangers and the fans, who speak about their passion for the show.

Besides being part of the other special features, there is a specific featurette about Bulk and Skull, as actors Paul Schrier and Jason Narvy discuss their long-running, comic relief characters. Viewing Power Rangers again and watching the extra features included here, it’s hard not to love these two real life friends. As other members of the cast and crew note, when the show began, Schrier and Narvy were much more experienced actors than the rest of the cast and even when asked to do some very juvenile things, they truly went for it, and their stories about working together are very warm and funny.

The only issue I had with these interviews was the lack of any discussion about the less than cordial circumstances several cast members left under. St. John, Trang and Jones left during a salary dispute during Mighty Morphin Season 2, while Yost has spoken openly in the past about some of the homophobia he faced on set, which led to his departure during Power Rangers Zeo. However, none of this is brought up in the course of these discussions – perhaps a mandate from Power Rangers producer Saban. It’s not all presented through rose-tinted glasses at least though, as the cast talk about the aforementioned grueling schedule and Schrier and Narvy touch upon times when the scripts weren’t, shall we say, Shakespearean in nature.

As for archival material, there is a ton here, and old school fans will be delighted to see material only available on long out of print VHS Power Rangers releases come to DVD, including titles like “Alpha’s Magical Christmas”, “Lord Zedd’s Monster Heads” and the original Mighty Morphin Power Rangers fan club video. There also is a nice Easter Egg (hint, it’s on Bonus Disc 1 in the Mighty Morphin box set) that gives fans a very entertaining look at how Power Rangers was originally pitched.

A collection of Season 1-7 makes a certain amount of sense, in that even though the final season included here (Power Rangers Lost Galaxy) was the first to introduce a totally new cast of Rangers right at the beginning, there were still several holdover characters and elements from the previous years, including Bulk, before future seasons would move on to completely overhauling the entire show.

I’m sure some Power Rangers fans will curse my thoughts on the actual series – but if it’s a true classic to you, I won’t argue the point. I was an older teen watching Power Rangers as hysterical camp with my friends when it first aired -- and noting how cute Kimberly was -- but I know what it means to truly be deeply invested in something that meant so much to you as a kid. (I’m looking at you original Transformers animated series – we both know you don’t really hold up!). And as a lifelong fan of superhero stories, the lure of Power Rangers is something I totally understand. On one of the featurettes, one of the cast members (I believe Walter Jones) says the show was like some strange, perfect mix of Saved by the Bell and Voltron, which is about right.

From the story of the Green Ranger to the arrival of Lord Zedd to the transition from Kimberly to Kat and beyond, these stories are ingrained in a generation as powerful childhood memories. And this DVD collection certainly gives them their due.

At $219.95, the Season 1-7 collection (which comes with a special Red Ranger action figure reissue), is clearly intended for the hardcore fan. And there will be other, cheaper ways to buy smaller sections of this set as time goes on. But given how many episodes are included here and how great the special features are, those who do purchase the full collection will be quite happy with what arrives.

Power Rangers - Seasons 1-7: From Mighty Morphin to Lost Galaxy can be ordered now at Time Life.

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Complete Series is also available separately via Amazon, among other outlets.

Eric Goldman is Executive Editor of IGN TV. You can follow him on Twitter and IGN.